Three questions for the Prime Minister

I followed with some interest the speeches on Australia’s approach to the refugee crisis that you gave this week in New York. Given you have commended Australia’s approach to the rest of the world, I have a few questions I would like to ask.

1. If every country adopted Australia’s approach, where would refugees go? Australia’s approach is built on the foundation that we will not accept any refugees who arrive on our borders without a visa. If other nations adopted the same approach where would those who are persecuted and unable to access visas go? Would that mean their only option would be to stay in their home country and get executed, tortured or imprisoned?

2. You proudly declare that your party has stopped the boats. Is this just shorthand for saying we have stopped the boats coming to Australia? Given those who previously arrived were driven by desperation to make the dangerous journey from Indonesia to Australia, am I not right to assume that that same desperation will now drive refugees to seek safety somewhere else? I assume the Department of Immigration and Border Protection has done some research on this and could tell me the destinations that refugees who would have come to Australia are now pursuing?

3. What do you plan to do about the refugees detained on Manus Island and Nauru? Report after report has shown that these refugees, who have committed no crime, are being subject to violence, degraded treatment, and a complete crushing of the spirit. I remain perplexed that a champion of liberalism can tolerate this, and can only assume that you’re doing everything in your power to resolve the situation. So I‘m wondering what your plan is?

yes I’m wondering how this so called intelligent and compassionate man can get up in front of people and try to convince people he is taking a humane and compassionate stance which the world should emulate. Sometimes I’m ashamed to be an Australian, this is one of those times

Here is a PS that I would like to add to your excellent letter, Scott: ‘Given Australia’s current record of stripping boat refugees of their human rights, do we have more claim to have a seat on the UN’s Human Rights Commission, which you so ardently advocate, than Adolf Hitler would have, on a commission for a fair go for the Jews? Or is your request just an Orwellian Newspeak double standard, when we say something and do exactly the opposite? E.g. We claim to have the world’s most generous refugee policy while your Immigration Minister Dutton called the refugees,… Read more »